The 23rd season of excavation at Tell Brak took place from March 13 to May 16, 2000, with David Oates as Project Director, Geoff Emberling as Field Director, and Helen McDonald in charge of the house and recording of pottery and objects. The season was co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq and was primarily funded by the Adelaide Milton de Groot Fund, in memory of the de Groot and Hawley families, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; we also gratefully acknowledge significant support from the National Geographic Society (grant #6738–00), the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. We would like to thank the Director General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria for his encouragement and interest. We also thank Ammar Abdul Rahman from the Department of Antiquities in Damascus, who paid us a visit during the season, as well as our representative from Hassake, Hussein Yusuf. The excavation staff was a pleasure to work with: Donald Hansen, Selma al-Radi, Marta Ameri, Jean Evans, Walton Green, Melanie Hatz, Torben Larsen, Tomasz Pazdej, Laurie Tedesco, David Thomas and Tim Skuldboel were site supervisors; Jack Cheng was registrar and photographer; Henry Wright conducted a series of soundings and gathered controlled samples of material relating to fourth millennium occupation of the mound; Michael Charles and Mette Marie Hald once again ran the botanical sampling programme; Jill Weber analyzed faunal remains; Susan Rees was conservator; and David and Joan Oates supported the project through the off-season and in the field with their expertise and enthusiasm.